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Camden New Journal - by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 21 June 2007

Mothers Denise Marshall (back left) and Pat Pearce with (front) Philippa Marshall, Annie Godfrey and Yeut Tang

Closure bombshell hits centre as ramp goes up

Council chief: decision to spend £4,000 taken ‘under my radar’

A BLUNDER at the Town Hall led to a £4,000 ramp being built outside a centre for young people with disabilities just a month before council chiefs ordered its closure.
Camden’s social services chief Martin Davies admitted the council had got it wrong after the ramp outside the Kentish Town Project, in Ellen Terry Court on Clarence Way estate, was fitted without his knowledge.
He said: “It shouldn’t have been built. I wouldn’t have sanctioned that.
“If you look at lots of decisions the council makes you’d see not all these things are picked up. There are times when things get overlooked. I’m not sure which team made the decision. It would have been under my radar.”
The Kentish Town Project, based in a hard-to-let flat more than 15 years ago, is used by 11 young people who learn how to make decisions as well as socialising at the centre.
In January, a council officer sent out letters informing parents of the centre’s closure – a month before elected councillors had made the decision.
One mother, Denise Marshall, is angry at the council’s failure to consult parents over the closure. She claimed that Mr Davies had never said sorry.
Another parent, Pat Pearce, said Mr Davies talked about switching from day centres to community services. “But this group of people are extremely ill-suited to it,” she added. “They have complex needs.”
Silla Carron, a tenants’ leader on the Clarence Way estate, said: “I’m absolutely gutted. The Ellen Terry project is part of my community.”
She added that the council was not supposed to have any money, but “because departments don’t talk to each other they put in a ramp to a building that’s going to close”.
Parents of some of the project’s users – who led a deputation to Monday’s full council meeting – argued that their children didn’t need “services” but instead wanted a place where they felt settled.
Cllr Davies called the centre’s closure a “re-provision” of services which did not necessarily warrant a consultation.
Lib Dem councillor Flick Rea pledged to try to delay the closure and called the letter sent to parents announcing the shutdown a “huge insensitivity”.

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